Player Development Wall, Beal, Craw. Vesely, Ariza, Booker-

[Nivek]

Also worth mentioning re my post above that one big reason Jeffries could play for the Wizards was Arenas' ability to be both high usage and efficient. The Wizards literally needed nothing offensively from him because Arenas was so good.

[WizarDynasty]

Ared was alot better in college. Had the wizards owners develope Jared's Handspeed during his rookie season while he was still young and his body was young and fluid instead of stiff and old--like he is now....this organization would look much much different than it does now.

Just look at our players. Long athletic and not one player that they have drafted has seemed to ever transform from average ball handler into at elite ball handler at the small forward spot. Most great front court players improved their dribbling skills dramatically after entering the league. Wizards small forwards, powerforwards, centers, you name it. They never significantly improve their individual skill level from what we see in college. It's more than a coincidence.
It all falls back on the direction our GM and owner enforce on coaches. Coaches don't care about improving a players value since the players already make more than coaches anyway. like Eddy Jordan said and I paraphrase "why should i force a player to work on his skills".
The people who care most about an organization keeping longterm highlevel talent are the fans because we plan to be around alot longer than coaches and we don't care how much a player makes as much as seeing a high quality product. Owner's like Leonsis have to realize that it's their responsibility to the fans to improve a players value as high as possible and cash that chip for future draft picks if we can't sign him home discount like oklahoma city did. But wizards almost never exchange a bargain drafted player whose skill level and increased exponentially for lottery picks. That should be the goal of leonsis if he ever wants to get out the basement. EG goal is to convince his employer that his contract should be extended for another few years--with short term performance goals. We have not stock piled any draft picks based on EG ability to develop his draft picks higher than what he paid for them. Leonsis needs to improve the products we have into tradeable commodities. Vesely, Booker, and Seraphin are prime candidates to dramatically improve their value to being able to get us back lottery picks if they significantly improve their perimeter dribbling skills and be able to attack the basket and draw fouls.

[Nivek]

Really, Jeffries wasn't better in college. He was overrated because his team went on a post-season run and he took the most shots. As I mentioned above, he didn't look like a good prospect -- my draft analyzer had him with a "don't draft" grade.

[WizarDynasty]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN20OdsQGb0[/youtube]
In this video, i see sf/pf with great raw potential. Had Jared been working on his handspeed begining his rookie year, he would be a completely totally different player than what we see today. So you say, Jared should have known that improving his skills was in his best interests. It's the loyal fan's best interest to develop raw athletic high bbiq but below average skilled players into above average skilled players because hi bbiq and athletic is a tremendous longterm asset. an organization should never leave a player longterm value up to chance. There should culture than ensures that a player reaches his maximum value before his rookie contract in order to get draft picks. Drafting nick young was a huge mistake because you never develop low bbiq but athletic players because their bbiq always puts that at a disadvantage during the playoffs or against hi bbiq teams.
In my personal opinion, and I emphasize opinion, Jared had unbelievable intangibles for a small forward coming out of college. Under Grunfeld's and wizards culture, improving your dribbling handspeed especially for small forwards is not a high priority in Grunfeld organizations. Young players are dramatically effected by this lack of structure from an organization because they miss the valuable window for when their skills improve the most.
Grunfeldian culture dictates that young players should take it upon themselves to improve their individual basketball skills and that its not really within the organizations interest to do so because a young player improving their individual skills raises their price tag later when contract negotiations come around. the flaw with this logic is that young player are just trying to fit into the system and expecting a young twenty year old fresh out of college to hire dribble improvement cultures so that they can maximize their offensive perimeter skills is what Grunfeldian culture has embedded in the wizard organizational hierarchy. this may benefit grunfeld and coaches because they like to perceive their mental abilities to be more valuable than player skill level to an organization. Coaches are much more interested in a player memorizing their X's and O's because it makes a player reliant on the coach, dramatically improving your skill levels doesn't make you more reliant on a coach--anything that makes a player more reliant on a coach increases the coaches value. Eddy Jordan prime example.
Then you have Grunfeld who wants the owner to believe he has value. Overpaying your own players who's value has skyrocketed because of their improvement in individual skills doesn't serve the interest of Grunfeldian led culture that believes it's not in managements interest to develop a player's indivdual skill set. Look at the mentality of Javale McGee. This was a case of a player desiring to get better and management telling him to do it on his own--- why would they tell a player that-- Grunfeldian logic is that its the player responsibility to get better---or the same statement its not in managements interests for young players to get significantly better with the comany resources.
However, an owner would have a different mentality than that of GM since an owners market value increases dramatically if a player is able to increase the team's fanbase and bring in more advertising dollars. Grunfeldian logic doesn't see that transforming booker into an elite explosive ball handling sf/pf benefits the organization because we could trade him for a lottery pick if we can't agree to a reasonable contract extension. Grunfeldian culture tells a player its his responsibility and not in the interest of the organization for the player to significantly improve his individual basketball skills. Leonsis must undo this Grunfeldian Culture that has been in place for close to a decade. Newman was a start, but holding players accountable for individual skills improvement should be a part of wizards culture and an internal action plan based on handspeed and perimeter dribbling especially for our athletic fowards should be first major change instituted by TED the SAvior Leonsis.

Just my attempt to add new thinking to our board. Fire Grunfeld doesnt change the culture immeiately but he can be fire while still in office by dismantling his culture even while he is still here. Yes players should be responsible for their indivdual skill development but i would rather trade a player who has improved dramatically for lottery picks instead keeping that same undeveloped player on the roster for a cheap amount. One culture continously adds value to the organization, the Grunfeldian and Coaches that Grunfeld has hired believe in spinning the tires in one place with no accountability.

Just my attempt to add some "different" talking points to this legendary GM board. These are just opinions not so i welcome another posters view that is significantly different from my own. I could be completely wrong about Grunfeldian culture, he might actually offer incentives to small forward and powerforwards that demonstrate in practice to management that they have signifcantly improved their perimeter dribbling skills and ability to draw fouls off the dribble. Then the point of this whole thread is useless which would be pretty cool.

[LyricalRico]

In my personal opinion, and I emphasize opinion, Jared had unbelievable intangibles for a small forward coming out of college.

And I actually think Jeffries was showing that early in his rookie year under Doug Collins when he was being groomed as a semi-point forward (presumably as a poor man's Pippen). Then he got hurt, MJ/Collins got fired, and the arrival of Arenas/EJ made Jeffries a purely off the ball player that couldn't do much since he couldn't shoot.

Same thing with Juan Dixon, who showed promise as a fiesty third guard who defended and hit open 3's (sort of a poor man's BJ Armstrong). I still remember the game where he had like 9 steals against Indy and almost singlehandedly won the game. He could have done well in the role for a while, but EJ gave him the green light and the chucking began.

Both of them could very well have been useful role players on a Doug Collins coached team IMO.

[nate33]

In this video, i see sf/pf with great raw potential. Had Jared been working on his handspeed begining his rookie year, he would be a completely totally different player than what we see today.

For the purposes of my own sanity, I've avoided engaging you in these assertions, but I just couldn't keep my mouth shut this time.

How many times are you going to repeat this fallacy that players can make substantial improvement in innate physical characteristics? Jeffries wasn't going to improve his "handspeed". There are no drills that are going to make a 21 year old all that much better in motor coordination. Heck, if anything, the one area where I thought Jeffries was modestly competent offensively was in his dribbling ability. For a guy 6-11, he could handle pretty well.

[AFM]

You have no idea how good he could have been had he engaged in metal bench below the knee crossover drills.

[payitforward]

You have no idea how good he could have been had he engaged in metal bench below the knee crossover drills.

I don't see how anyone could doubt this -- and, had he read Plato while doing them, he could have become a philosopher. Maybe even a philosopher-King (assuming there was a trade worth doing).

[WizarDynasty]

In this video, i see sf/pf with great raw potential. Had Jared been working on his handspeed begining his rookie year, he would be a completely totally different player than what we see today.

For the purposes of my own sanity, I've avoided engaging you in these assertions, but I just couldn't keep my mouth shut this time.

How many times are you going to repeat this fallacy that players can make substantial improvement in innate physical characteristics? Jeffries wasn't going to improve his "handspeed". There are no drills that are going to make a 21 year old all that much better in motor coordination. Heck, if anything, the one area where I thought Jeffries was modestly competent offensively was in his dribbling ability. For a guy 6-11, he could handle pretty well.

what you say is true for old players, but young twenty years old are still developing their nervous system. In fact alot of men don't stop growing until they are 24 and that's when their nervous system and body mechanics begin to solidify. It's like a young tree, you can bend the branches while they are still growing and they will forever grow in the fashion that bend them but after a certain point, you can't bend the branches of a tree, if you bend them the branches actually break. However, the tree will always be an oak tree or an apple tree no matter what you do physically to it. the wizards have alot of highly athletic high bbiq players...you can never make a non athletic player athletic like you can't ever make an apple tree into an oak tree, but while they are still young you can bend branches into the best shape for your organization. You can develop a players coordination an handspeed, just like you can teach almost anyone to type faster using both hands instead of typing with two fingers but the longer you wait, the harder it is to teach an old dog new tricks. Just like the longer you wait, the harder it is to bend branches without the branches breaking.
Youth is an asset that diminishes in value if not properly shaped for longterm value. Developing handspeed in rookies and players on rookie contracts is like torcing a two finger typist into a two handed typist. You always get better results in the end and that's what longterm loyal fans want. Better results in the END versus spinning tires and going no where hoping for luck.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Jeffries is a good comp for Vesely. And Jeffries was colossally overrated coming out of college. In YODA, I actually had Jeffries with a don't draft rating after his soph season. The ONLY reason he got as much playing time as he did was because he was a lottery pick. And then Isiah gave him that nutty contract.

Jeffries IMO got selected way too high--in the lottery, because of an Indiana Hoosier Final Four appearance and one game where Jared Jeffries destroyed Duke's Carlos Boozer.

I remember watching that game. You would have thought by that one game Jeffries was a monster on both ends of the court.

[sashae]

Vesely will be lucky to turn out to be a homeless man's Jared Jeffries. I don't see how he's not out of the league after this contract -- a total and utter Thabeet or Araujo level bust.

[queridiculo]

Caught a few Thunder games this year and he's actually starting to look like he's getting it.

Of course he's in the perfect environment with a clearly defined role and not much pressure.

[WizarDynasty]

Felt this statement might better go here because it relates to all of your draft prospects.

here is one solution which requires only a person of power to install. Vesely has to put under a serious perimeter dribbling regimen for him to have any value. Once he demonstrates the ability to score from the perimeter against a point guard, that's when Vesely will be useful to this team. No one in management has the expertise on how to unlock his strengths.
If Vesely if forced to work on his handspeed dribbling 5 hours a day for the next month using both hands, he then can use his natural first step explosiveness and really start to look like Blake Griffin. When you see Vesely take off, he has rockets in his legs. He just doesn't has poorly developed dribbling that can be easily improved if a person who wields power in the organization is pushing him. I don' think Vesely has any clue how good he would be with greatly improved handspeed. If he did, then we would have seen the improvement.
It's like living the jared jeffries fiasco all over again, except we have an owner that actually cares about longterm value.
Vesely problem is his youth. His mind doesn't have the flexibilty to imagine how fun it is playing basketball when you can actually have full control of the basketball and not worry about fumbling the ball against defensive pressure.
The quicker he becomes an expert at dribbling, the quicker the wizards can benefit from Vesely's dominant physical attributes. the problem is, can you imagine Whitman making this statement to the press? NOpe because this is not whitman's thinking--- it's the same problem over and over again with this culture, the player never.......never........improve their dribbling skills because management doesn't believe forwards and powerforwards....let alone point guards needs t exhibit expert dribbling skills before they are allowed minutes on the court. It's a fundamental breakdown from the top.
If the top is clueless about the definition of elite dribbling skills for a forward, then you see no emphasis placed on the most important aspect to offensive basketball. Being an expert dribbler is more important than shooting the basketball but if your coaches have no clue on how to transform a player into an expert dribbler then your end result is the washington wizards. Grunfeldian culture is clueless as to how transform a poor dribbler into an elite dribbler and they don't have standards in place as far as evaluating a player's dribbling ability and improvements. the result is that you don't see improvement from season to season. Mediocre because of lack of bbiq from top management. Young players can't envision what they could be if they had a particular skill improvement--- the biggest weakness in youth is that you have limited wisdom have the unknown. Having a wise upper management fill in the gaps unwise youth and prepare them for elite competition is the whole point of drafting prospects. If upper management is not an expert in this area, they shouldn't be in the field of drafting prospect who lack wisdom about what they could be.
A professional organization who has been existence for decades should be experts in their particular field. You would expert the washington wizards who have been in arena of professional basketball for nearly 60 years to be in 99th percentile as far as understanding he lifecycle of developing a raw athletic player into a refined professional basketball player.
AGain the problem is grunfeldian culture. this culture drafts raw prospects with potential and then tells that potential, you figure out what you need to do become elite, and leave to chance a player's longterm value. this is wasting company assets. to get a lottery pick, fans suffer a year worth of losing. Teh reward for suffering is that we get hope in young prospect that with the right training will allow the fans to experience the joy of winning. the problem is that this organization reduces the possibility of that young prospect ability to provide future joy for the fans because they refuse to take responsibility for ensuring that the prospect brings joy to the fans.
In the end, the fans lose with grunfeldian cuture because grunfeld gets paid, the young prospect who is told to develop himself still gets paid whether he improves or not, and the fans continue to suffer season after season.
What's the common denominator with all young prospects in grunfeldian era, none of them, not one single prospect has ever....significantly improved their off hand speed, and as an extension, their ability to control the basketball against defensive pressure ....and as an extension, significantly improve their ability to draw fouls leading to wins.
Improving handspeed has never been part of Grunfeldian culture and is the single most important skill for an offensive player to become an expert at if he is to be considered to be elite offensively. LEONSIS has to make improvement of this skill in young players a pillar in the new Leonsis ERA.

[WizarDynasty]

Week has passed and still not seeing the ball handling improvements in Beal. Accountability.

[Nivek]

A whole week!

I've seen some improvement in his follicular agility, though. He'd do better with a Hall of Fame follicular agility specialist, of course. Who do you recommend, WizDynasty?

[WizarDynasty]

If i were a billionaire, i would have had that answer for you 5 seconds after you asked.

[montestewart]

I notice the billionaires always hop to attention when Nivek asks a question.

[WizarDynasty]

Now that was funny

[Nivek]

I notice the billionaires always hop to attention when Nivek asks a question.

Sadly, I hadn't noticed.

Early New Year's resolution, baby!

[AFM]

Heh heh.... Work on that hand speed Brad!